05-12-05, LearnTexasHoldem:

Marginal Hands In Tourneys

Question: Here's my problem... There's very few starting hands I don't like. 5-7, 4-6, 8-10... You can just nail someone when you hit a good flop and catch some weird straight or full house. I know I can't play like that all the time or I'll blind out quickly when I never catch "the big one". I guess I don't know when to fold all the time. If I'm left with a gut shot I might stick around for a small bet or two to see what happens. Seems I live a little too dangerously, I'm totally vulnerable to a big bet which causes me to fold a lot. That sometimes works to my favor when I do hit though and can win big. At what point should I tighten up? Seems a lot of times I'll hit big, then quickly blow a big stack by chasing too many things...

Paul - Cincy

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

Answer: Hands like those don't play well in tournaments because you have a finite amount of chips and a finite amount of time. In cash games, you can play as long as you like and dip into your pocket for more money. In tournaments, you are looking for hands that you are ahead in and don't have to catch big flops to win. For tournaments, I would suggest that you play more of an ABC, high card strength game. The only exceptions would be in hands where you are getting tremendous value for your preflop investment.

For example, if 5 people call a raise and you are in the blinds or in late position with 64s, go ahead and call. Don't make that play though unless you get a huge return on the preflop call. Another exception, is if you are very experienced and can play them well post flop. If you watch the WPT, you'll see guys like John Juanda raising with hands like 94off and 64, etc. The key difference between your play and his is that making a hand with those cards isn't his main way of winning with them.

His strategy is to represent a big hand and force his opponent to flop something, otherwise his bets will pressure the guy/girl out of the hand. He wouldn't call with the hand in hopes of flopping something worth betting; hands like these have such a low chance of flopping something strong; by just calling with them, you waste a lot of tournament chips. That point is so paramount to playing well in holdem that I'll repeat it: There is a difference between a betting hand and a calling hand.

A betting hand can win because you force someone else to flop something to beat you or by making the best hand, a calling hand can only win if you show down the best hand. You can work on trying to this technique out for yourself, but be warned, not even the best players can use this successfully all the time. It takes a lot of balls and great hand reading skills to be able to bet 64 to the river unimproved and take down the pot.

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